G for Games!!! DIY Board Game – Ashta Changa Pe (A2Z Challenge)

I don’t know if anyone of you has heard of the game Ashta Changa Pe?

Let me give you a little background.

Ashta Changa Pe is one of the oldest games of India played during the era of Kings and Royalties. At its simplest, the game would be played to improve eye-to-eye coordination in kids, and in it’s more complex form, it would teach youngsters the vital skills of war tactics and strategy making and implementing.

In different parts of India the game would be played slightly differently, and therefore it has been known in different names such as:

Ashta Chamma – Andhra Pradesh

Katte/Gatte Mane – Mysore

Daayam or Thaayam – Tamil Nadu

Kavidi Kali – Kerala

Ashta Changa Pe – Maharashtra

The game is a game of chance. You have two tamarind seeds as dice. The tamarind seeds are split into half.

When a person throws the four pieces of tamarind seeds, there can be 5 number of outcomes based on how many fall face up and how many face down. (Face up is broken side up, and face down is intact shell up)

The above is the illustration of how tamarind seeds may fall. All faces up, as in fig 1, means 8 or Ashta. All faces down like in fig. 2 means 4 or Changa, One face up as in figure 3 means 1 or Pe, three faces and two faces up mean 3 and 2 respectively.

This is the board I made using a mount board, a pencil, a ruler, and some crayons. Finally made the borders with a marker.

The arrows indicate the movement of the players. Each person gets four players and the players can be anything from buttons to beads to seeds. Just that every person’s player should be different.

The rules of the game are very much similar to Ludo, with a few differences. But if I put all the rules down here, this will turn into a super lengthy post.

So if you guys want to know how to make this board game for your kids, and play in the summers, please let me know and I’ll write another post with the rules.

The best part of the game is that even though I have made this on a mount board, you can simply draw the squares on the floor with a chalk and play. And you don’t need any sophisticated resources, you can play the game with just about anything you find in the house.

My nephew is going to be here in the summer, and this seemed like the perfect idea to keep both the kids engaged in the afternoons while we grown ups catch up on our naps.

Both daughter and father had fun playing till the baby decided enough was enough. She pushed all the players off the board, and thus ended the game quite unceremoniously!

However, while they were playing, I felt deeply satisfied that they were enjoying thoroughly something I made with such few resources 🙂

 

This post was written for the A to Z April Blogging Challenge.

Also linking it to the Ultimate Blogging Challenge

Ultimate Blog Challenge

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